WPCG President Feras Elkhalil was once again featured in 24H Vancouver; this time discussing the surprising intent of some organizations to freeze salaries and rates moving into 2012. As he has emphasized in the past, this is increasing the risk of losing top professionals from the local talent pool.
http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/local/2011/09/07/18654266.html
Global TV featured WPCG president Feras Elkhalil and consultant Nizam Ibrahim in the story about the potential of BC employers facing a dwindling pool of IT professionals. The main factors leading to a potential Brain Drain point to other Canadian cities rev up their IT markets with higher pay rates and considerably lower costs of living.
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WPCG is excited to offer a pair of tickets to this year’s RBC Canadian Open, held at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club, a traditional private golf club located just south of the Pacific Spirit Regional Park in the UBC endowment lands. We have 1 pair of tickets for each day of this year’s events, along with a parking pass for the Thunderbird Parkade. WPCG will select winners in a series of random draws. There are three ways to qualify:
You will be entered into each draw for daily tickets. Draws will be held at 3:00 PM each day in advance of the actual event, with the exception of tickets for Sunday, which will also be drawn on Friday. Winners will be announced on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wpcg.ca, and contacted via direct message through whichever Social Media tool used to enter the draw. Winning names will be included for each day’s events. |
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About the Canadian Open
Throughout its 107-year history, the Canadian Open has featured many of the world’s finest golfers, including Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Greg Norman, Nick Price, Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Jim Furyk. While the Canadian Open may have been regarded as just another leg of the PGA Tour in recent years, title sponsor RBC has pulled out the stops to increase the number of top-100 golfers to ensure that this is an event to be remembered.
The Canadian Open promises to be as exciting as it’s ever been this year, seeing the best field in play for decades. This year’s Open features a star-studded cast and a large contingent of Canadian athletes, including Mike Weir, Stephen Ames, David Hearn, Chris Baryla and Matt McQuillan.
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CKNW’s Mike Smyth spoke with WPCG President Feras Elkhalil to discuss current trends in the IT labour market. The hot topic today was the potential for young IT professionals to be drawn to other cities in Canada, while Vancouver employers lag behind in consultant hourly rates and annual salaries. |
Listen to a clip here: CKNW Interview July2011
| WPCG President Feras Elkhalil was featured in the Vancouver edition of 24H, discussing the factors that could result in the top IT professionals leaving the Lower Mainland to explore more lucrative options in other parts of Canada. Please check out the article on the 24H website, or download a PDF of the article here. |
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| In a continued effort to demonstrate our gratitude to the consultants we partner with, and to provide them with an exceptional customer experience, we are proud to announce another addition to the WPCG Priority Program. WPCG has established a partnership with Bell Mobility to secure uniquely discounted wireless phone plans and hardware for members of the WPCG family.By partnering with Bell, we can offer our valued consultants access to the largest 4G network in Canada, providing stable, reliable voice and data services wherever they go. Having the largest network translates to less ‘dead zones’, and fewer call failures than any other mobile phone provider in the country. |  |
As a part of the WPCG Priority Program, we would like to offer our consultants and their families and friends two different plans to choose from, and dozens of handhelds including the most highly-sought after smartphones.
For details, please click here to review the WPCG Wireless and Data Plan. If you have any questions about our Priority Program, or about the Wireless phone plan deals, please contact your WPCG representative, or speak with Glen Murray, Relationship Management Consultant at (604) 294-1200, extension 173 or via email at gmurray@wpcg.ca.
WPCG’s research team gathers real-time market information, which is compiled and analyzed for trend reporting. These trends include the demand of various skill sets, gaps in supply, and the fluctuating salary and contracting rate ranges. We offer this market analysis report in the form of the WPCG Pulse on a quarterly basis in order to aid in the decision-making process surrounding business initiatives, including budget, resource and career planning.
We are pleased to announce the availability of the WPCG Q2 2011 Pulse Report, and invite any feedback you may have via email to pulse@wpcg.ca.
| WPCG founder and president, Feras Elkhalil, was featured on the cover of Business in Vancouver this week, and in an article discussing the cost of living in the Vancouver area.
As a subject matter expert with unique insight into hiring trends, Feras provided BIV with his perspective on the challenges local companies are currently facing, when attempting to attract out-of-town talent. |
 Feras on the cover of BIV. |
WPCG’s research team gathers real-time market information, which is compiled and analyzed for trend reporting. These trends include the demand of various skill sets, gaps in supply, and the fluctuating salary and contracting rate ranges. We offer this market analysis report in the form of the WPCG Pulse on a quarterly basis in order to aid in the decision-making process surrounding business initiatives, including budget, resource and career planning.
We are pleased to announce the availability of the WPCG Q2 2011 Pulse, and invite any feedback you may have via email to pulse@wpcg.ca.
We’ve noticed a clear shift among our clients, moving from standard interviews to behavioural interviews. Instead of relying on the tried-and-true questions like “What are your strengths and weaknesses” or “Describe a typical day in your current role”, behavioural interviews probe for specific anecdotes highlighting how a candidate has acted in certain circumstances. This style of interview cuts down on the stock answers like “My biggest weakness is that I work too hard” and forces the candidate to demonstrate their experience in handling situations where there are many potential courses of action.
The challenge with this style of interview is knowing how to prepare for it, as there are no ‘stock’ behavioural interview questions. In order to prepare, take the time to review the position details, and determine what key traits or behaviours might be applicable. For example, some key traits that the employer may be seeking can include:
Write down a list of all the traits the position describes. Once you’ve established a list of traits that are likely relevant to the position you’re interviewing for, think about specific circumstances where those capabilities have been called upon, and how you addressed them. Make sure that your scenarios are relevant to the position you’re targeting, but don’t script them out; simply have a memory queued up to call on if need be. The STAR method is an excellent tool to help crystallize each point of a particular story:
Ideally every situation that you face will result in a win-win conclusion, but we all know that isn’t the case. The result of your stories don’t always have to have a fantastic outcome – in fact, outlining circumstances where you have lessened inevitable damage can be more effective than those where everything is positive; we learn through adversity, after all. The main point to remember is that you make sure that each story results in some form of benefit – if the result was not a total win, at the very least list lessons learned, and takeaways for how you would recognize and avoid that pitfall in the future.
If you have any questions about behavioural interviewing, or about any aspect of your job search, please don’t hesitate to contact any one of our recruitment consultants at (604) 294-1200, or online on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
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